Thirty Squares

 

Quietly and without social media hashtags, I just completed 30 days of 30 compositional studies – all using the square. Prompted by Mark Alan Anderson’s blog post about squares and my previous 30-day compositional challenge a few years ago, this self-challenge turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable and instructive!

I was pleased by this attempt to abstract an interior scene
so that I "saw" the man as a compositional shape instead of a portrait.

I was afraid I’d tire of the square or find it too restrictive. To the contrary, I found it challenging but also versatile and accommodating – no need to decide whether my composition would be in portrait or landscape orientation. When I spotted a view with potential, I just held up my pencil in one direction (either vertically or horizontally), then turned it 90 degrees to see where the square border would fit.

One unexpected outcome was that the challenge gave me opportunities to examine “nothing” interiors to look for compositions that I wouldn’t typically draw. For example, while visiting Greg at Aegis, I often make quick portraits of residents, but they are usually just “floating heads” on the page. With compositions in mind, I detached the face or person and tried to see it as nothing more than a shape, just like the angles of walls or other inanimate objects.

This composition is one of my favorites of the whole
challenge. I could make a painting out it -- if I were 
so inclined, which I never am. ;-)

Another surprise was that the restriction of the square often forced me to crop something in my full view (like half a head or part of a chair), which has always been a challenge for me: If I see the whole thing, I feel compelled to draw the whole thing. These studies were excellent practice in training my eye to create an edge, even if my brain could see the whole.

Finally, I also realized that due to the portrait orientation of my daily-carry Uglybook, I often sketch on the top two-thirds or so of the page. Then I can use the remaining lower space to write journal notations. That’s a square sketch!

Bonus: The small studies were the ideal graphite pencil wannabe testers.

You’ve seen many of the 30 compositions along the way when the sketches were part of other stories. Shown are the remaining studies that weren’t shared earlier. Only two were done from photo references (as noted); the rest were done on location. (A few observations and insights in the cutlines.)

Photo reference

Typically I would draw the whole head of this woman, but the square forced me to see a better composition by including only part of her head.

Photo reference

Not to flatter myself, but I thought this one seemed rather Hopper-esque!

30-Day Challenge Finale: Rewarding

 

6/26/22 same scene from photo

6/24/22 Green Lake (from life)

The final week of my 30-day compositional challenge resulted in a couple of interesting observations. One afternoon at Green Lake, I made two thumbnail studies from life (above left). I noticed and then became fixated on retaining a tiny sliver of light on one side of a tree, which was otherwise silhouetted. I took a few photos before I left the spot.

It’s very rare that I would draw the exact same scene from both life and from a photo, so I wondered how different the experiences would be. A couple days later, I made another thumbnail study, this time from a photo (above right). Each experience had different benefits. From the photo, I was better able to abstract the background because it’s slightly out of focus. But I could barely see that sliver of light in the photo. Since I knew it was there, I suppose I could have faked it. But if I hadn’t first drawn it from life and had only snapped a photo, would I have even noticed that tiny bit of light? (This question is the sketcher’s equivalent of whether a falling tree makes a sound if no one is there to hear it.)

6/28/22 from photo

And speaking of observation, one study I made from a photo seemed to take on a life of its own as a drawing, not just a thumbnail: the one of trash cans (at left). Beyond capturing the shapes and values, I got interested in rendering that slim crescent of light on the wheel and the unexpected reflected light under the part of the trash can that protrudes slightly. I probably would not have noticed those bits if I hadn’t made this composition study. Not everything may be worthy as a drawing subject, but everything is worthy of the close observation that drawing demands.

As you’ve likely gathered from my weekly reports, Ian Roberts’ 30-day challenge has been enormously instructive, illuminating and rewarding, even in ways that I hadn’t expected. I automatically “see” compositions wherever I look now. I don’t expect all my compositions to be great just because I’ve focused on studying the topic for a month. But if a sketch ends up going awry, I think I’m now much better able to identify what went wrong. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that it’s a faulty composition – and perhaps the real fault would be that I didn’t make a thumbnail study first! All those books I read and instructors I heard (but didn’t listen to) were right: Taking a few minutes to make a thumbnail first can save so much time and aggravation later!

Most surprising was something that wasn’t even an objective of the challenge: I gained an appreciation for the value of drawing from photos. I even found a way to enjoy it (though it will never replace drawing from life). I’m ruminating on more thoughts related to drawing from photos, to this challenge specifically, and to art challenges in general . . . coming up in future posts.

6/25/22 Greenwood neighborhood

6/27/22 Green Lake

6/27/22 Green Lake

6/30/22 Gas Works Park

Challenge completed!

Composition Challenge Observations

6/18/22 Lake Union Park

 My 30-day composition challenge has prompted me to sketch more often from photos than I have in the whole 10 years that I’ve been sketching. Although it will never be the same as drawing from life, I have come to appreciate its value as a learning tool. However, when I start the day by sketching from a photo, I don’t feel like I’ve drawn yet until I’ve made a live sketch. I had a similar observation when I was drawing from memory and imagination during my 100-Day Project: Drawing didn’t feel “real” until I did it from observation. After more than a decade of focusing on observational drawing, maybe I have trained myself to associate “real” drawing only with drawing from life.

6/19/22 Gas Works Park (from photo)

Another thing I’ve observed from this challenge is that the compositions I am most attracted to usually juxtapose the irregular, organic shapes of trees and other plants with the hard, manufactured or built angles and lines of houses, cars and poles. That has been my sketching interest for a long time, yet I don’t think I had articulated it to myself until doing these daily studies made me more aware of it. When I look back at the composition studies I’ve made, they almost all include a contrast of soft and hard lines.

6/19/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood

6/20/22 Crown Hill neighborhood (the lower one 
was the initial study for a larger, color sketch)

6/21/22 Maple Leaf

6/21/22 Maple Leaf

6/22/22 Maple Leaf (from photo)

6/23/22 Gas Works Park

6/24/22 Fremont neighborhood

Looking for the Composition

 

6/11/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood

During one of my very first Urban Sketchers workshops in 2013, instructor Frank Ching said that 80 percent of the success of any sketch is the composition. Back then, I had no idea what he was talking about, and it would be several more years before I gave it much thought. Although I’d like to say I’ve paid attention to composition for a while now, there’s nothing like making a daily thumbnail (especially before attempting a “real” sketch) to make me look for the composition.

That’s not surprising. What is surprising is that I am enjoying the 30-Day Challenge almost more than I care to admit. More than halfway done, I thought I would be complaining by now about how tedious thumbnail studies are. Instead, I’m enjoying them immensely. When I think of them as small sketches in their own right as well as being instructive, they are fun and not tedious.

6/12/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood (from photo)

6/13/22 Roosevelt neighborhood

6/13/22 Roosevelt neighborhood

The one dated June 14 (at left) was especially interesting. Ching Hung had shared a photo of her stairway that she had used for a study, so I gave it a try, too. It’s one of very few times I’ve drawn from a photo of something I haven’t seen with my own eyes, which I generally don’t like to do. But in this case, it was easier to abstract only the values and shapes because my brain didn’t “know” anything about what I was seeing.

6/15/22 Maple Leaf (from photo)

6/16/22 Gas Works Park

6/16/22 Gas Works Park

6/17/22 Gas Works Park (from photo)

The 30-Day Challenge is On

6/1/22 Cannon Beach

I was away last week, mostly in Cannon Beach, Oregon, and I have plenty of sketches to share. To start off, though, I’m posting the daily composition studies I did since June 1 for Ian Roberts’ 30-Day Challenge. The first three days are all compositions of Haystack Rock and its surrounding Needles. I have sketched those rocks many times during the multiple visits we have made to Cannon Beach, but I typically sketch the entire rock formation – the “postcard” view. The composition challenge pushed me to look at that same view in different ways to get away from the postcard, crop more tightly, and think more about the “design” of the composition. I enjoyed being nudged in this way, and I liked one study enough to make a larger sketch in color (you’ll see it later this week). I might even make others later based on my own studies and photos. (Imagine that – me using studies and photos to make “finished” pieces the way painters do! What is the world coming to!)

6/2/22 Cannon Beach

On Day 4 before heading home, I sketched through a window at the McMenamins Olympic Club Hotel, where we had spent the night in Centralia. I had hoped to sketch more in the town (which I had last visited in 2018 on a fun sketch excursion), but it rained most of the time. At least I could see power lines through the window!

6/3/22 Cannon Beach

6/4/22 Centralia